Unlawful Rent Adjustment Alleged At Red Bank's Colony House

A principal of Ridge Park LLC, the Lakewood-based company that owns the Colony House apartment building in Red Bank, has been unlawfully increasing its tenants’ rents beyond levels mandated by the state, the borough’s said Thursday night.

According to board attorney Gene Anthony, approximately eight residents of the apartment building have come before the board between 2010 and 2011 with complaints that at least one of the building’s owners was demanding increases in rent well beyond the established consumer price index, or CPI.

The consumer price index, which Red Bank requires its landlords to use when upwardly adjusting rent, measures changes in the costs of goods and services. Typically, the CPI goes up a few percentage points every year. In Red Bank, landlords can increase rent 80 percent of the CPI if they pay for heat, and 60 percent of the CPI if the tenant covers their own heat costs. When it came to new leases issued by the Colony House, however, tenants were told they would have to pay increases well above the CPI.

A concerned tenant [editor’s note: though the meeting was public, we declined to publish the tenant’s name as she has not yet lodged a formal complaint against Ridge Park] told the board Thursday she was made to sign a lease that upped her rent by more than $50 a month. As she lives with her elderly mother, she said she felt pressured into accepting the new terms and was worried that speaking out could cause other problems.

The board didn’t have trouble coming up with a conclusion, after all, this is something they’re all too familiar with by now: simply file a complaint, they told her, and the situation will be resolved. Though eight residents have come forward with the exact same complaint – though just how much the rent increases has fluctuated from tenant to tenant – Anthony imagines the problem to be widespread among the tenants at Colony House.

“I think it’s a good guess that tenants there are paying more than they are supposed to,” he said.

Vincent Light, the board’s chair, said he believes the problem stems from a failed attempt to convert the apartments into condos in 2009. Colony House management let leases expire and did not fill empty units in preparation for the switch from rented apartments to owner-occupied condos. In an effort to fill the place up with tenants once the condo plan was abandoned, discounts of around $250 a month for the unit, which range in price from about $1,450 to $1,700, were offered to new renters.

After the original leases expired, Park Ridge attempted to recoup the discounts by adding some of what was cut originally back on top. That’s against the law, and something Anthony said he believes ownership, and most landlords for that matter, is well aware of. Though the issue has come up multiple times, the board wasn’t immediately aware Thursday of the principal’s name, though he has appeared during appeal hearings, its members said. The reason they couldn’t identify him is simple: he’s never gone on the record. Whenever a tenant has filed an appeal, he’s acquiesced to the board’s demands that he cut the increase and follow the law.

Anthony said about four appeals were approved by the board. In the other cases, Anthony said the tenant settled with Park Ridge, though he advised against that course of action, saying those tenants were likely still paying more than they were supposed to.

As to why the board hasn’t levied any penalties against Park Ridge, Anthony said it couldn’t as it doesn’t have legislative power and is merely an advisory board. But, if every Colony House tenant comes before the board with a successful appeal, Anthony thinks that’s punishment enough.

Attempts to reach Park Ridge after business hours were unsuccessful Thursday night, though a message was left with the company’s publicly listed telephone number.